In a move sure to ruffle liberal Americans’ feathers yet again, Russia is considering an increase in the current tax on divorces.

Kelly Phillips Erb of Forbesreports, “Russia is considering upping the tax on splitting up to 30,000 rubles ($941 US) from the current rate of 400 rubles ($13 US). The increase of nearly 7500% has two goals: raising revenue and discouraging divorce.” The revenue will be used to “plug holes” in Russia’s current budget deficit, a rising concern to many. In addition, however, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev hopes that the higher tax will cause some to pause before rushing into either marriage or divorce. Erb calls the move part of Russia’s larger “rush to morality” in the past few months. Read more…

At 33, my friend (I’ll call her Shannon) had little to show for her five-year relationship with her live-in boyfriend. No ring. No baby. No future. So she finally decided to break up with him. Read more…

New published demographic research by Albert Esteve at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, reveals Latin American society is changing at an unprecedented rate. For generations people have been focused on early marriage, family and child-rearing, but now co-habitation rather than marriage is becoming a norm and having children is being postponed. It is the same picture we already see in many other countries. However, Sao Paulo of the Economist observes that the change is happening “astonishingly quickly” in Latin America. It took “rich” countries 50 years, with changes occurring in sequence, while in Latin America the changes have happened in half the time and all at once, resulting in faster, less predictable social change. Read more…

If you live together with someone before getting married, your chances of divorce increase significantly. Also, almost every problem people think they are avoiding by living together actually increases—abuse, infidelity, breakup, etc.

Even though cohabiting with someone might seem like a good idea, it is a practical disaster. The worst thing about cohabitation is the mindset that drives it. To understand this mindset and how it sets up a relationship for failure, you must first understand the mindset that is necessary for success in marriage. Read more…

Today my wife Lindsay and I celebrate our two year anniversary. Two years ago, we tied the knot and took the plunge. Two years ago, the cutest girl in Indiana was taken off the market! Two years ago, we launched the beginning of the rest of our lives. Two years ago…

And after two years, there’s no hiding behind the dinner-and-a-movie façade of dating life any longer. I can’t buy enough flowers to conceal it. I can’t open enough doors. I can’t say enough “I love you’s.” She knows (and painfully, so do I) that she married the wrong person. Read more…

LONDON, May 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Half of all British children born this year will be living with only one parent by the time they reach their teens, a study has revealed.

The study, titled “The myth of long-term stable relationships outside of marriage” undertaken by the Marriage Foundation, found that 45 percent of British teenagers between the ages of 13-15 are not living with both parents and that 9 out of 10 children born to unmarried, cohabiting “partners” will be living in single-parent households by their teens. Read more…

Unmarried couples who live together are staying together longer than in the past — and more of them are having children, according to the first federal data out Thursday that details just how cohabitation is transforming families across the USA.

For almost half of women ages 15-44, their “first union” was cohabitation rather than marriage, says the report from the National Center for Health Statistics. For less than one-quarter, the first union was marriage. The report was based on in-person interviews conducted between 2006 and 2010 with 12,279 women ages 15-44. Read more…

This year, the Supreme Court will render judgment on the institution of marriage. Though most of us don’t realize it, the Court first did so forty-one years ago in Eisenstadt v. Baird, a decision that gravely wounded marriage and set the nation on a course of gradual debilitation by ruling that states could not restrict the sale of contraceptives to unmarried people. Read more…

The religious lives of young people are being damaged by family breakdown, a new report shows. How will churches respond?

Christians throughout the West are dismayed at plummeting church attendance figures. They blame video games, or left-wing teachers, or Richard Dawkins. But perhaps the real answer is closer to home — their own families. Read more…